What is PCOS?

Btw, just realized I never said what PCOS meant! For those of you not familiar w/ the fertility world, PCOS stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, & it's a collection of symptoms that indicate a problem in which certain hormones are out of balance, making ovulation sometimes illusive/irregular, which obviously impacts your menstrual cycle & ability to conceive.  It affects everyone differently, obviously, & some women may still ovulate on a somewhat regular basis, where others may ovulate only a few times a year (causing long, irregular/unpredictable cycles -->not easy for baby making!).  Some women that have PCOS never ovulate at all, & some may ovulate occasionally but also have many anovulatory cycles (cycles in which ovulation does not occur) throughout the year.  It just depends.  Also, as the name suggests, PCOS is associated with having cysts on your ovaries (usually the imbalance of hormones is what causes the follicles to develop into cysts instead of ovulating). 

Also it should be noted that usually PCOS is associated with women who are overweight, & often involves weight-related issues.  For me, I'm not overweight, & I have what some would call "thin PCOS" or "lean PCOS".  This is part of the reason why I originally never thought I had PCOS, because I just don't fit into the category of the "type" of women that usually have it.  I'm not overweight, don't have high blood pressure (actually have low blood pressure!), & don't have extra hair on my body!  But I've since learned there are many women of normal weight who have it as well (thus, lean PCOS), & that it's actually fairly common...PCOS is the #1 cause of infertility, & almost 1 out of every 10 women has it!  Kinda crazy.